"The White House is preparing a national climate strategy that will outline how President Biden plans to meet his ambitious goals on global warming, a senior administration official said yesterday.

The policy road map will “lay out the key specifics around the range of tools we have for us to actually hit” Biden’s pledge to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions between 50 and 52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, the official said on a call with reporters.

“There are multiple ways for us to get there,” the official added. “And the national climate strategy will lay out the range of opportunities for us and show the durability of our target.”

The administration insists that it has alternative pathways to meet Biden’s climate pledge even without substantial new action by Congress — like the Clean Electricity Performance Program, a $150 billion effort to decarbonize the power grid that was recently dropped from the Democrats’ budget reconciliation package.

But independent analyses show that cutting U.S. emissions in half without new laws would require a sweeping regulatory agenda and substantial action by states."

Jean Chemnick reports for E&E News October 27, 2021. [2]